INVESTMENT CASTING

 Investment  casting  or `lost wax’ process, is a  method  of casting   metal  parts  under controlled  conditions  inorder  to produce relatively accurate castings having smooth  surface.  The process consists of making a pattern of expendable materials  eg. wax, plastics, fusible alloy or frozen mercury.
A  suitable  moulding  or  investment  compound  eg.   ethyl silicate  is  cast around the pattern followed  by  curing.   The investment  material  is  then melted out to  form  the  finished mould.  The  molten metal is cast in the finished  mould  usually under  pressure  and  mould is broken and  removed  to  free  the castings which  usually require the removal of gates only for its finishing.   The parts produced by investment casting range  from 5gms  to  4500 gms. The main advantage of this procedure  is  the ability  to make very intricate shapes that can’t be possible  by either machining or by any other method.  The size of  investment castings ranges around 8 cm length x 4 cm thickness.
Investment  casting  is  the  oldest  method  of  precission casting.   It originated in china, about 3,500 years ago.   Later on,  this process was used in Greece & Egypt, and then spread  in other countries of the wold.
Investment casting techniques remained in vague for hundreds of  years  for  manufacturing status & art-works,  but  then,  it disappeared  till  it  was rediscovered about 400  years  ago  in Italy.
During  World  War-II, investment casting wasa  adopted  for manufacturing engineering components that could not be fabricated by other methods of castings.

1.   INTRODUCTION
2.   USES AND APPLICATIONS
3.   CHARACTERISTICS
4.   ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF INVESTMENT CASTING
5.   PATTERN CONSTRUCTIONS
6.   INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR INVESTMENT CASTINGS
7.   B I S SPECIFICATION
8.   MARKET POTENTIAL
9.   MARKET SURVEY
10.  PRESENT MANUFACTURERS
11.  PROPERTIES & GRADES OF STAINLESS STEELS
12.  SPECIAL ALLOY STEELS
13.  PRECISION INVESTMENT CAST AUSTENITIC-
STAINLESS STEEL
14.  MANUFACTURING PROCESS
15.  PROCESS FLOW CHART
16.  PLANT LAYOUT
17.  PRINCIPLES OF PLANT LAYOUT
18.  PLANT LOCATION FACTORS
19.  EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED IN THE PROJECT REPORT
20.  RAW MATERIAL SUPPLIERS
21.  PLANT AND MACHINERY SUPPLIERS

APPENDIX – A :

1.      COST OF PLANT ECONOMICS
2.      LAND & BUILDING
3.      PLANT AND MACHINERY
4.      FIXED CAPITAL INVESTMENT
5.      RAW MATERIAL
6.      SALARY AND WAGES
7.      UTILITIES AND OVERHEADS
8.      TOTAL WORKING CAPITAL
9.      COST OF PRODUCTION
10.      PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS
11.      BREAK EVEN POINT
12.      RESOURCES OF FINANCE
13.      INTEREST CHART
14.      DEPRECIATION CHART
15.      CASH FLOW STATEMENT
16.      PROJECTED BALANCE SHEET